Roses and Nightshade
by never-give-up-on-ffvii
Summary: FFVII AU in which something, or someone, has come and destroyed everything Tifa Lockhart knows and loves, and she must choose whether or not she will run for her life and live a slave to fear, or stand and die at the hands of someone who's power is beyond anything she could ever understand. Tifa x Aerith, some yuri, be gentle,
1. Chapter 1

Roses and Nightshade

a labour of love

Note: I do not in any way, shape or form own the rights to any of the characters mentioned in this story. This is purely fan fiction and is not intended to be canonical. In fact, I daresay it's wildly NON-canonical. Call it, the world as it could have, maybe even SHOULD have been, but then again, I've always been rather arrogant. Please be advised also, that there's a smidge of yuri here, but if you're reading this, you likely were looking for it anyway, so well done! If you AREN'T looking for that, however, I offer you this opportunity to turn back and forget that you have ever seen this meager work.

Still here? Good. Let me tell you a tale...

One

It was warm, warmer than usual, out on the plains. The sun had set hours before, but that lingering heat that you only ever really got out in the wastelands still made its presence felt. A small fire crackled, more for preparing food than for warmth. It didn't get cold anymore. Not for a while, anyway.

A young woman sat by the fire, staring intently into the flames. She'd been on the run a while now, and though she was clearly no older than nineteen or twenty, she had a look of worry on her face that would have looked more natural on someone twice that age. How long had it been, truly, since she had gathered up those she could, and ran for their lives out of the cities? Time somehow meant less now, out here in this barren territory. She couldn't say how long, only that it was too long.

So many she'd cared about, even some she'd loved, however secretly, had died in the initial attacks. The hordes came literally out of nowhere, after SHE had arrived. A shiver ran down the young woman's spine as a thought of the monster crossed her mind. The young woman lowered her head, letting her forehead rest on her knees. She was tired, more tired than she could ever remember being, and all the more weary for knowing that come sunrise, she and her companion would have to start running again.

She looked over at the sleeping form of her companion. A willowy slip of a woman, long brown hair splayed all about in her fitful sleep. Her eyes were closed, hiding the deep emerald gleam that seemed to go on forever, eyes you could get lost in. She slept, for now, and the awake woman did not want to trouble her. Aerith slept so little these days, it was just best to let her sleep when she could. It did nothing to ease the lonely ache in Tifa's gut, of course, to sit here in silence, alone. Tifa really didn't care, though. She was trying to work out some sort of plan for the coming day. She didn't know where they would, or even could, go. Options were becoming more and more scarce as more and more cities fell to the onslaught brought on by...

_No_, thought Tifa to herself. _I won't even THINK her name. It's dangerous. SHE will know._

Though Tifa never considered herself superstitious, and certainly no coward, she still treated the beast that ravaged her world with an almost reverent fear. It was not foolishly founded; ever since SHE came to their world, everything she knew, everyone she cared about...destroyed.

Her eyes moved back over to Aerith's sleeping form. _Almost everyone..._

HER arrival had actually started out with promise. For the first time in what seemed like forever, all the factions that had been so bitterly at war had joined together in a last-ditch effort to drive off the invaders. Shinra and AVALANCHE fighters worked together with remarkable fluidity and cohesion, even Cloud and his nemesis temporarily set aside their rivalry to fight for not freedom, but survival. There was a time, a brief shining moment, when Tifa had entertained the notion that they could actually defeat the invader, but that was cut short on the Day of Shadows.

The leader of the invading army, a woman that Tifa guessed may have actually been a little younger than she, went out to confront the small strike team of superbly-trained warriors. She remembered that she, Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie, Barret...even Sephiroth...they all stood and watched as the young woman came forth from the black belly of the demon host. She didn't look all that imposing, at first. Black hair, cut short but with some length left in front to drape over the right side of her face. Reddish-purple eyes that seemed dead inside. She stood silently, for several tense minutes, merely looking at the fighters that opposed her. Unmoving, like a statue, or a corpse.

And then, she idly raised her hand, and the world began to fall apart.

Cracks opened in the ground, swallowing some of Tifa's comrades straight away. Then, as if guided, geysers of magma burst forth and incinerated others. Within a few seconds, everyone except for Tifa, Aerith, Cloud and Sephiroth were no more. Tifa had been stunned; her world had been obliterated before her eyes and she couldn't so much as move. Aerith was crushed under the weight of the Planet's cries of agony, so she was no help. A wicked battle of magic pitted against weapon skill ensued, but even the strongest of all, Cloud and his eternal nemesis, met their end together as the monster literally tore them apart with but a glance. The fight was merely entertainment. She only killed them when they ceased to amuse her.

Those chilling, dead purple eyes turned to bore right into Tifa's soul. The monster looked at her, smiled and laughed. "Remember my name, mortal."

"Remember it was Laylah who stole everything from you."

_Laylah._ The name made Tifa physically ill.

Laylah turned away from them without another word, as if they were of no consequence to her. Perhaps they weren't. Tifa didn't think even she, with all her martial arts training and skill as a fighter, had a chance against Laylah. Laylah's power defied everything Tifa knew and understood. Her magic didn't even seem to need, much less originate from, Materia. She just simply willed it to be, and it was. How could a simple girl from Nibelheim hope to stand up against someone who was, for all intents and purposes, a god?

_No_, thought Tifa. _Fuck that. She's not a god. I can't accept that a god could be that callous towards life. _ It changed little what you called her, though. She was destroying the Planet. There was no rhyme or reason to it, she just wanted to destroy.

"Tifa..."

Aerith stirred, breaking Tifa out of her reverie. Her eyes just barely opened, but there were those deep, infinite pools of emerald. Tifa tried not to look her in the eye directly, though she couldn't understand why she would avoid Aerith's gaze. There was just something about the former flower girl's eyes that made Tifa feel...uncomfortable. They got along fine, they'd been friends since they'd met, but there was something in Aerith's eyes that just stripped the safety out of the situation, and right now, Tifa didn't need to deal with that.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Tifa asked, head still propped up on her knees.

"No...I just felt...something...in the air. Like birds, that aren't birds...watching." Aerith shrugged. "Everything's suspect anymore, with Laylah making the rules..."

"DON'T say her name..." Tifa caught herself after the first word, bringing the volume down several levels. Tifa knew it was silly, for Laylah wasn't omnipresent, but she still feared drawing the monster's attention nonetheless.

Aerith managed a wan grin, and sat up. She nudged over next to Tifa and rested her head on Tifa's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know she hurt you, all of us, so much. But living in fear like this, it's not right, Tifa. It's killing us faster than Laylah ever could."

Tifa sighed; Aerith was right, of course.


	2. Chapter 2

_As usual, these are not my characters, they're the property of Square Unix, and some of the girls may at some point have sex. Use appropriate discretion._

Two

Daybreak. Like a weight lifted from Tifa's chest, the sun rose over the horizon, filling the vast empty plains with radiance. Tifa and Aerith both had long started packing in the campsite, burying the cinders of the fire in case some of Laylah's hunters happened to be stalking outside their normal territories.

_It could happen, _Tifa reminded herself. _I will not take any chances with Aerith's life._

Tifa looked down at her filthy, torn clothing. She looked a far cry away from her normally sharp dress, like she wore on the day Cloud came to her bar. _The day all this bullshit started, _she remembered. Now instead of her normal tank top and miniskirt, tattered remnants of sweatpants and a t-shirt with more holes than a termite mound draped over her lithe form. _I must look a sight, _Tifa laughed to herself. _I imagine poor Aerith's had a chuckle or two at my expense._

At the mention of Aerith's name, Tifa instinctively looked up at the other woman. Though Aerith's pink dress was filthy and torn, Aerith still had an unnatural beauty about her. The way she still stood proud and tall in the face of this never-ending horror, the way she could still smile even though they'd lost everything. She was...

_Beautiful._

Tifa shook her head at that thought. _Where the hell did that come from? I gotta get out of this desert and around some other people, _Tifa thought, quite emphatically when you considered she was only thinking it. Still, Tifa had difficulty keeping her eyes of Aerith for long. When it's just two together for a long period of time, and one doesn't seem to be able to meet the other's gaze when talking, that's indicative of a greater issue, and Tifa knew it.

The very last thing Tifa Lockhart needed right now was getting the hots for Aerith.

Aerith hefted the pack that she'd loaded up with what supplies she could carry, what little they were able to grab before Midgar died in a cataclysmic conflagration, and started to walk. She turned and smiled at Tifa, apparently oblivious to Tifa's staring. "Shall we?" she asked.

Tifa grinned a small half-grin, and nodded. Tifa lifted the much larger pack she'd prepared with a quiet grunt, and then they headed out and away from the campsite.

They walked in silence for maybe half an hour, Tifa's mind racing through possible destinations, and which of those she'd heard over the radio had been destroyed. A lot of places had been destroyed. Nibelheim, Midgar, Igdrazil, all laid waste by the force people had taken to calling the Obsidian Legion. Laylah's shock troopers, sent to a destination with only the order 'destroy' to direct them. They were efficient, cold and cruel. They didn't care about women, children, the elderly...all were targets. All were to be obliterated.

"I've heard a story, a story about a village outside of Laylah's reach."

Tifa winced at Aerith's casual mention of Laylah's name. She silently scolded herself for showing such weakness, and turned to speak.

Her eyes locked directly into the endless pools of emerald that were Aerith's eyes.

_No..._

"Ummm...yeah...I've heard about that too. Someone from one of the other camps we went through told me that there's a village out beyond the Frostlands that for some reason, Laylah's monsters can't, or won't, go there." Tifa struggled to get the words out. She cursed her wandering mind, as she had so many times before.

Aerith's face turned more serious than Tifa had seen for quite some time. "Tifa, are you alright? You seem distracted."

_NO. NOT NOW._

Tifa forced a smile. "I'm fine," she lied.

Aerith scowled slightly, a very clear sign she wasn't convinced by Tifa's less-than-clever ruse. A moment passed, and Aerith turned away, her eyes narrowing slightly. Tifa found herself breathing again. "I'm told it's called Edda," Aerith added. A tiny glint caught Tifa's eye, as the sun sparkled off the white Materia Aerith still wore in her hair. Tifa remembered how Aerith told her it did nothing at all, and how Cloud was so convinced that wasn't true.

Of course, it didn't matter now. Somehow, Laylah had disabled all Materia everywhere. Magic as the people of their world knew it had come to an end. Mages found themselves without any means to defend themselves or to heal others, and the Legion steamrolled over them all the faster. Tifa swallowed hard at that thought, for though she herself never was much for a magician, preferring the simplicity of beating the living hell out of her enemies, she knew it had been necessary during her time with AVALANCHE, if anything to keep everyone alive.

Now, no one was safe. The playing field was levelled, and only those who were proficient at mundane forms of fighting could survive.

Just not for long. Cloud and Sephiroth had been much stronger fighters than she was, and they died horribly in a matter of seconds once Laylah had decided she was bored with them.

Tifa just couldn't comprehend that sort of power. Laylah literally made the shadows come to life and attack her enemies. She split open the ground and forced the very Planet itself to vomit death on to those who opposed her. What sort of person can even do that? Was Laylah even a person? Tifa simply didn't know, and that drove her mad with frustration.

"Talk to me, Tifa." Aerith's sweet voice cut through the haze like a razor. "What has got you so messed up?"

Tifa stopped walking, and hung her head low. _I can't tell her._

_ I should._

_ I must._

_ But I can't._

_ I'm a fucking coward._

"I was just thinking back to before the Day of Shadows. When we all met, before...you know who...showed up," Tifa lied again. The lies were coming way too easily for her taste anymore. How long until Aerith knew she was hiding something?

_How long until she leaves me?_

Aerith smiled, weakly, the smile that someone who is more tired than anyone on their feet should be smiles. "Those were good times. I miss my flowers. I don't think there are flowers anywhere on the Planet anymore. The old church is gone now, and so are my flowers."

Aerith's smile broadened. "Maybe I can plant some in Edda. I have seeds with me."

_Seeds, _Tifa thought. _How perfect. What a perfect symbol for the life we're leading out here._

"You better plant those seeds when we get there, then," Tifa smiled back, finally with some sincerity. Aerith always had a way of changing the tide when Tifa needed it most.

Aerith came uncomfortably close, putting her hands upon Tifa's shoulders. She leaned in close.

_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, AERITH?_

Aerith gently kissed Tifa on the cheek, and then pulled back slightly. "Now you're back to being my Tifa." She looked into Tifa's eyes for a few unendurable seconds, and then her smile reaching it's full, blinding glory, she turned back to the road ahead. "Come on, Lockhart, we have road to cover before nightfall. One step closer to a new life, right?"

Tifa stood there, dumbfounded, a deep blush tinting her cheeks, and her fingertips gently resting upon the cheek that still bore the pale pink mark of Aerith's kiss. Then, after realizing she was now several yards behind Aerith, she cursed to herself once more and sprinted after the flower girl.


End file.
